


swing my heart across the line

by irrelevant_owl



Category: RWBY
Genre: Awkward Romance, F/M, Fluff, Sparring, Yang is Best SisterTM, cuteness, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 09:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19315783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irrelevant_owl/pseuds/irrelevant_owl
Summary: Ruby narrows her eyes. “Surrender, enemy.”The smirk Oscar sends her way is haunting. “Never.”Without warning, she flies forward, sliding past him, then whirls violently on one foot, sticking out an arm to pull him off balance. He’s obviously not expecting it, she sees it in the brief shock on his face, but he covers it up neatly, bracing himself in a powerful stance and directing her momentum down toward the ground. She fumbles, shooting up a hand reflexively and latching onto his shoulder in a panic. He catches her waist to steady her, and somehow in a blur of confusion they end up near perfect dip, faces barely inches apart.//AKA Ruby, Oscar, and the surprisingly intimate art of combat.





	swing my heart across the line

**Author's Note:**

> (title from OneRepublic's Counting Stars)

It’s a few months month after she meets him that it happens first. They’re locked in relentless combat, hooded silver eyes holding narrowed emerald. Red and green flash around the haphazardly cleared sparring zone like jetstreams, and it’s almost epileptic in its unfiltered energy.

Oscar’s gained significant speed since their first few sparring, and he’s behind her in a flash, aiming a high kick at her head. Ruby side steps easily, maneuvering underneath his raised leg and hurling him into the air. He allows her throw to carry him backwards in a flip, all smug feline agility, landing softly on his toes and sliding a few feet backward, dropping in a one handed crouch. She activates her semblance, dissolving into a blur of crimson petals, and they’re at it again, blocking and swinging and ducking and spinning.

They push off to the sidelines briefly, hunched over, breathing erratic. Ruby narrows her eyes at him. “Surrender, enemy.” 

The smirk he sends her way is haunting. “Never.” 

Without warning, she flies forward, sliding past him, then whirls violently on one foot, sticking out an arm to pull him off balance. He’s obviously not expecting it, she sees it in the brief shock on his face, but he covers it up neatly, bracing himself in a powerful stance and directing her momentum down toward the ground. She fumbles, shooting up a hand reflexively and latching onto his shoulder in a panic. He catches her waist to steady her, and somehow in a blur of confusion they end up near perfect dip, faces barely inches apart. 

She flushes instantly. 

From the porch, Yang whistles. Blake smacks her, concealing a grin of her own. Weiss applauds mildly, Jaune snickers, and Nora whoops, leaping into the air victoriously as Ren shakes his head in tragic amusement. Qrow exits the scene, presumably in pursuit of a drink.

Oscar drops her in a panic, and she barely catches herself, landing on her elbows with a undignified squeak.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry!” He helps her back up. “Are you hurt?”

“It’s all good,” she manages. Her heart has taken to beating this weird skipping rhythm, fast-fast-slow, fast-fast-slow, and it’s making her dizzy.

He looks rather terrified, eyes wide like an owl’s. “Call it a draw?”

She nods, shaken, and that’s all he needs to speed back into the house, ignoring the looks the others send his way. Ruby waits a moment before following, but she’s not as lucky. Yang tugs on her hood her before she can hide in her room, leaning on her shoulder, practically oozing smugness. “So, dear sister…”

“I _don’t_ wanna talk about it,”  she says pointedly.

Apparently, this is all Yang needs. “Ah HA,” she grins wide and maniacally gleeful, “so you admit there _is_ something between you and farmer bo-”

“I _MEAN_ ,” Ruby screeches, “I don’t wanna talk because there’s nothing _to_ talk about and _all_ of you are _reading too much into something that isn’t there the end goodbye._ ” She pushes past them, mumbling an apology to Jaune when she inadvertently bumps into him.

She runs into Oscar upstairs, wonders if she can pretend not to notice him even though they’re walking down the same narrow hallway. He stops her with a feather light touch to her upper arm.

“Wait-Ruby?”

She shivers. “Yeah?”

“I- it’s…we’re okay, right?”

When she looks up at him, he’s shy, refusing to meet her eyes, casting that gold speckled glow towards the cracking floor. Everything, her panic, tension, hostility, drains from her instantly, and despite herself, she grabs his hand, holds it close to her chest. “Of course we’re okay. We’re _always_ okay.”

He smiles gratefully, disappears down the hall. She hovers there a few moments, ignoring the fluttering in her chest, a caged butterfly realizing for the first time that it has wings.

 -----------------------

She’s seventeen when he finally manages to pin her down. They’re playing more than anything, chasing each other around the courtyard as their friends engage in actual productive learning.

Jaune’s facing off against Weiss, which would ordinarily be considered a one way slaughter, but his hand to hand combat has improved dramatically and he holds his own against her flurry of ice and sleet and steel. She’s not taking this very well, used to laughably easy wins, and her usually elegant form disintegrates into furious slashing.

Oscar, meanwhile, is doggedly tailing Ruby as she flies, carried by her semblance. She rematerialises directly above him, throwing him a cocky wink, before scattering into petals again. She lands effortlessly in the upper branches of a tree, and as Oscar vaults off the ground with his cane, she flips backward, landing with her arms held in a V.

Smirking up at him, she calls, “I thought you said you got _faster_ , Mr. Most improved.”’

He rolls his eyes, leaning against the trunk. “Not my fault I can’t turn into like, pine needles or something at my every whim.”

Ruby snorts at that, and he plunges after her, aiming to tackling her before she can activate her semblance again. “Gotcha!”

She twists, slipping under his hands before he can grab her, coming to a stop halfway across their makeshift arena. She pretends to examine her nails, biting back a giggle. “Ooh, so close, try again later?”

He lunges for her again, and this time she gives in, ducking his initial attack, allowing him to jab and kick and aim blows her way, basking in the flux of adrenaline as she spins and steps and dances around him.

A truly hideous screech tears their attention away. Weiss’ knight towers above Jaune, brandishing a sword ten times the size of his body as he cowers.

“ _WeissmakeitsTOPPPPPP!_ ”

She glares down at him from her perch on her knight’s head. “Not till you give me the apology I deserve.”

“ _For what, improving enough to_ _disarm you?_?”

“Precisely.”

Jaune just screams louder. Ruby turns back to Oscar, silver eyes glinting. “You think she’ll take pity on him and give in?”

He snickers. “Nah.”

“Cool.” Ruby shrugs. “Gives me more ways to mess with ya.” And then she’s speeding towards the knight, daring Oscar to follow (of course he does). She scatters into roses, speeding up through a gap between the knight’s body and outstretched arms, loops around Weiss, and dives back down.

She’s not prepared for the solid force that collides into her, literally knocking her out of her semblance. In a blink, Oscar has her pinned on her back, knees on either side of her body, pushing her arms down. He smirks down at her, far too proud of himself for her liking. In the light of golden hour, his eyes are a kaleidoscope of emerald, gold, auburn, rust. Her breath, already erratic from sprinting around the courtyard, catches.

“So,” he begins, “what was it you were saying about messing with me?”

She glares defiantly up at him. She hears Weiss gasp, followed by Jaune’s dramatic sigh of relief, and wonders if the two have actually stopped their match just to watch her in her misery (yeah, her friends can be extra like that). In a last ditch effort, she tries to catapult him off in a single fluid motion, shoving against the ground with her legs. “Get _off_ me!”

He doesn’t budge, grinning brilliantly. “Admit I won.”

She narrows her eyes, washed silver holding soft multichrome. “ _We weren’t even fighting._ ”

He leans forward. His hair has grown longer, what with their slightly overbooked schedule with no time markered in for a haircut, the tips just brushing her cheeks. She hopes he can’t hear her hammering heart. “You know, I’m willing to sit here as long as you keep delaying your inevitable fate.’’

 _Joke’s on you, Oscar Pine,_ she wants to stay _, because I’m willing to stay here for the rest of my goddamn life._

“Fine. _You win,_ ” she mumbles instead, blush heating up her cheeks.

His entire face brightens, and he pushes off her, helping her up as he stands. She brushes it off, whacks him lightly. “I’ll get my revenge on you next time.”

“Looking forward to it,” he laughs, and then he heads back to the group, casual as ever. Ruby facepalms, whining miserably to herself. Weiss pushes Jaune after Oscar, then saunters over to her from behind.

“Ruby, I adore you like my own sister-”

“You sure about that Weiss?”

“-and as such,” she continues with a well aimed glare that has the shorter girl shrinking back, “I will not stand by and watch you fail so miserably.” 

“Geez Weiss, he wins _one ti_ -” she shrieks in surprise when Weiss whacks her upside the head. 

“You dolt, I’m talking about the _crushes_ you both so obviously have on each other.”

“We _both…_ ” Ruby’s eyes grow wide, wide with horror and she slaps a hand over Weiss’ mouth, shakes her head furiously. “Shut _up_ he’s still here,” she whisper-growls, glaring mercilessly at her partner. 

Weiss sniffs, removing Ruby’s hand from over her mouth. “I should really lock you in a closet till you resolve your… _difficulties_ , but I’ll restrain myself, as _painful_ as it is to watch you two dance around each other.” 

She walks back towards the house, twirling Myrtenaster elegantly between her fingers, a smug hop in each high-heeled step. Ruby drops to her knees, groaning, face squished in her hands, and begs the God of Darkness to smite her there and now. 

\----------------------

 

When she’s nineteen, she and Oscar are sent on mission alone, just the two of them. It’s really nothing special; a small village not far from Atlas, long plagued by insistent Grimm and lacking proper defenses, sends out a plea for help. But everyone’s busy, tying together the final phases of their plan to take evil down once and for all. JNR is busy with their own mission, serving as diplomats in recruiting Ironwood’s army to their fight. Blake and Yang have their hands full, gathering intel on the White Fang, Weiss is still undercover in her father’s company, and Qrow is handling affairs with the Branwen tribe, so Ruby _oh so generously_ volunteers herself and Oscar for the task ( _We can handle a couple of Grimm, no problem!_ )

Turns out, “a couple of Grimm” is an understatement. They keep coming, row after row of relentless dark energy. She and Oscar must have taken out at least fifty Grimm _each_ and they’re losing energy fast. Ruby’s aura is draining, her usually deft legs buckling after a particularly hard landing. Oscar is trembling visibly, brandishing his cane, eyes narrow glints in the dusky lighting.

Worse, her silver eyes are failing her. It’s the first time she’s _had_ to use them in a long, long time, and though she hasn’t lost that intrinsic desire to protect, she can’t seem to call upon the pure innocence that defined her as a child, the unwavering love for her friends and faith in humanity that awakened the little piece of the God of Light within her.

Ruby arcs Crescent Rose downward, propelling herself into the air. She fires bullets from the peak of her trajectory at a cluster of Griffon, taking out two, then allows gravity to power her downward blow, slicing through three more. Her toes sweep solid ground, a flash of respite, then she’s up in the air again, a blur of wind and petals, spinning like a dancer, striking with deadly speed and deadlier accuracy. She lands next to Oscar as he heaves Oz’s cane upward, smacking an pouncing Beowulf, and finishes it with three deadly blows. Feverishly pushing her hair out of her face, she slams Crescent Rose into the group, eyes sparking with frustration. “ _Why_ are there so many Grimm here? Qrow promised us an _easy_ mission.”

He shakes his head, desperation evident on his face. “Can’t you use your silver eyes or something?”

Ruby shakes her head furiously. “I’ve _tried_ , I don’t know what’s going _on_!!” She’s cut off as a Griffon pummels towards her, narrowly dodging and swiping upward with her weapon, watching as it dissipates in a cloud of smoke. It’s troubling. She hasn’t struggled with using her silver eyes since the encounter with the Leviathan in Argus, and it scares her, what this might mean for her future, for the light she’s supposed to mirror. She moves to lift Crescent Rose, but her legs give out, knees folding under her. She hits the ground hard, air rushing out of her.

“Goddammit!!” She shrieks, pushing herself back up with the support of her weapon.

Oscar’s at her side in an instant. He crouches next to her trembling form, and he softens, dropping the heightened awareness of battle to squeeze her arm. “Listen to your body, Ruby. I’ll take care of them till you’re ready to fight again.”

In a flash, he’s back in front of the horde of Grimm, whizzing between black bodies, taking out more than she thought humanly possible. The Grimm have been steadily pushing back towards the village, and now they can make out the barriers of the village now, crumbling stone that has protected them for fifty years, but may not hold up against a final stand. And she knows Oscar; he’s too good, too determined, will go all or nothing to make sure they don’t let anyone else suffer. She tries to get up, many times, to snap out of her fatigue, to materialize in roses at his side, but each time she collapses shakily.

She doesn’t see him fall, because her own vision is swimming, exhaustion eating at her body like a parasite. Between weighted blinks, she catches it in bursts, like the stuttering images of a slow shutter camera. One moment he’s there, a blur of agility and raw strength, and the next he’s absent from her field of vision.

At first, the recesses of her sleepy mind tell her that he’s jumped, is up in the air for a fleeting second, or that he’s ducked a fatal blow, he’s fine, he’ll get back up. A moment goes by. Two, then four. She forces herself to keep her eyes open. _No._ Her heart stops, stutters, then without warning hits a hundred miles an hour, thudding so fast she can barely tell one pulse from another. There’s a void inside her, but warmth trickles in from the edges, electricity buzzing under her skin, between her arteries. She’s moving before she knows it, her essence dancing on silky petals, rematerializing at his side. Oscar’s pinned beneath the gnarled claws of an Ursa, cane fallen out of reach and fractured arm twisted unnaturally beneath him. He glances up at her, distorted, in pain, and her body floods with adrenaline.

 _Life is precious_ , Maria’s voice croons, somewhere in the space between her spirit and her mind _, and it must be protected_.

Her eyes snap open, bright and glinting like flints of steel, and she envelopes the world in a sheen of blinding silver.

When the world comes back into color around her, she pauses for a moment, taking in the field of statues now surrounding them. Her heart has slowed, leaving the echoes of a stampede in her chest. _So this is what it feels-felt-like, to have the burden of life on your shoulders._ She smiles to herself, then drops into a crouch next to her injured teammate, friend, partner (or _something more?_ ). His eyes are open, emerald-ochre reflecting the setting sun. Oscar looks up at her, squeezing her hand with his good one. “You did it, Rubes.”

She chuckles at the casual use of her nickname. “ _We_ did it.” She tilts her head, examining. “Do you think you can walk?”

They make it out, of course, the way they always do; not without bumps in the road, but _together_. They spend a few days, healing, recharging their auras, before finally rejoining with their teammates.

It’s dusk when they arrive back at the new camp; the team decided to switch locations while they were away. They approach the little cluster of tents, shoulders occasionally bumping, but this time there’s none of the awkward flinches, the hasty apologies. She smiles up at him, and he links his arm through hers, and decides that combat doesn’t have to be all sharp edges, throttling fear, or negative _at all_ when it’s with the person you love.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! See, I have ideas, I swear, I just lack the motivation to execute them *googly eyes*
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this messy self indulgent lil fic :) I've been trying to practice combat recently, and who better to do so with than the purest beans in the RWBY universe? I may be slightly obsessed, but alas, that is the life of a fangirl. On a side note, I'm sooo ready for the hiatus to be over and to see my precious BEES!!!!
> 
> thank you thank you for taking the time to read this idea dump! I did write this late (and I mean LATE) so please let know if ya find typos/ grammer/ general insensibilities ^^ And if you so desire, comments/ kudos are always welcome and much appreciated <3 <3


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